by Doug Mataconis
It sounds like the peace that had settled over Iraq in the past year or so may have come to an end:
BAGHDAD — At least 45 people were killed and 300 wounded in a series of truck-bomb and other attacks on Wednesday that rocked areas around official buildings in central Baghdad, the interior ministry said.
The explosions, at least one of them close to the heavily-fortified Green Zone security area, sent plumes of dark smoke billowing over the capital as police and army units scrambled, closing two main bridges over the Tigris river. A first blast came shortly before 11 a.m., sending white smoke into the sky. But then, 10 minutes later, a more powerful blast shook another area of Baghdad near the foreign ministry, shattering windows inside the nearby Green Zone and shaking houses in many parts of the city.
Two American helicopters were seen by witnesses hovering over the scene of the second explosion as Iraqi police and army units moved in. Two main bridges across the River Tigris — Jumhouriya Bridge and Sinak Bridge — were closed to civilian traffic.
The second explosion was close to but apparently not inside the Green Zone, a complex housing government officials and diplomats, including the American Embassy, according to the witnesses. News reports said a mortar shell may have landed close to a United Nations compound in the Green Zone.
Could this be a sign of renewed instability, and what impact might that have on the U.S. withdrawal plan ?
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